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Inspiron 580 does not restore hidden files
I recently had a problem that I think was a bad sector on the hard drive of an Inspiron 580 running Windows 7 Home Premium. I tried everything I could think of to get Windows to load and it would not. Finally I resorted to the Dell restore disk. I believe the only option it gave me was to back up my data and then do a reformat of the hard drive and restore. Anyway, that's what I did.
I use Thunderbird for my e-mail client and, for some crazy reason, they store the emails in a hidden folder under the USERS main folder. Seagate's Dashboard does not include hidden files, which I did not know until this experience, so I don't have a backup of the emails on an external drive. When the Dell utility backed up my data, it did not back up the hidden files either, although I specified 'back up everything'. I've gone into the EMERGENCY folder it created to verify that and I can't find them there.
When I restored, I specified a different user name than what was originally there. Now I have two folders under the USERS folder (the original one and the restored one) but neither of them have the hidden files. In Windows Explorer under folder options I have 'show hidden files, folders and drives' checked.
So now my hard drive has been reformatted and restored from the EMERGENCY folder and the emails are gone. So I have two questions. 1. Did the Dell utility back up the hidden files somewhere else? 2. If not, does anybody have a suggestion for some software that reads the disk and tells me if the email folder is still there but just not cataloged? I know I could take it to a professional but I suspect the file is gone so I don't want to have the expense of somebody telling me that.
And I guess my third question is, is Dell aware that they don't back up hidden files and have they fixed that problem?
Thanks for any help!
RoHe
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May 8th, 2018 17:00
I use Thunderbird on my Win 7 PC and it doesn't hide the mailboxes, even when "Don't show hidden files, folders or drives" is checked on the Windows Folder Options screen. And I use Seagate's DiscWizard backup tool that came with my Seagate USB HDD and it backs up all 4 of my email account files.
So I think you may have a different issue. You changed user names when you did the reinstall so the mailbox files, assuming they got backed up, don't belong to your new user account and they probably won't be visible to this new user.
Log into an account with Administrator privileges and search your entire HDD and backup file for "inbox" (without the " "). If you're lucky you'll find files named: "inbox" and "inbox.msf" (without the " ") for each email account that was setup in Thunderbird before the reinstall.
Each inbox/sent file will have a different path, hopefully in C:\users\appdata\roaming\thunderbird\profiles... (where "..." will be additional folder names in the path to the files). They may have names similar to the ones you set up after you reinstalled, but they should be much larger than the new ones for that same email account and with different paths.
If you find them, you might have two options.
1. After logging into an Admin account, navigate to the inbox files you want to recover and transfer ownership to the new user's account name. You must transfer ownership for both "inbox" and "inbox.msf. And do the same for "sent" and "sent.msf" for each email account. Or,
2. Create a new user account with the OLD user name and see if they automatically have possession of those files.
Caution: If you transfer ownership of the old user name's files to the new user name, you may overwrite the newly created inbox and sent files. So make sure the new ones are backed up somewhere before trying this...
And read this on the Mozilla forum too.
If the files got deleted all that means is the space is available for new files, so the more you write to the HDD now, the more likely they'll get overwritten and never be recoverable. So go here and download free Undelete onto a USB stick, not onto the HDD. Launch Undelete from the USB and see if it can find any "inbox" and "sent" files that can still be recovered. If you find inbox but not inbox.msf, there are ways to recover the .msf file which is the index for emails in inbox. Note that Undelete may list deleted but recoverable files as, for example, $nbox. So you'll have to tell it to save the file with the right name, eg inbox. And -importantly- save the recovered file(s) to the USB stick or to an external USB HDD. Don't save them directly on the main HDD because you'll increase the chances of overwriting the other files you want to recover. Once you've recovered all that you can, you can then copy them onto the main HDD again, into the proper path for Thunderbird to find them.
EDITED- I can't spell or type today... :Embarrassed:
fireberd
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May 8th, 2018 14:00
I don't know what the Dell recovery software does. However, this is a good lesson on having a full hard drive (all partitions) backup. Not for IF its ever needed, but for WHEN its needed. I make full periodic drive backups (disc image) to a USB connected hard drive using Macrium Reflect (free version). I don't use the Dell recovery software or the Windows recovery software. I use the Macrium full hard drive (all partitions) disc image backups if I need to restore a corrupted drive or OS. Much easier and it recovers everything.
There is a free recovery program "recuva" that is able to recover some data, providing it was not overwritten. Reformatting the hard drive may have corrupted or overwrote the data you want and its not recoverable. But, give it a shot. https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva
Tesla1856
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May 8th, 2018 15:00
Hopefully someone here has some answers for you...
Many of us use a more well-rounded, reliable, and supported Backup and Recovery program like Macrium Reflect (instead of stuff like Seagate Dashboard and/or Dell Recovery).
Too bad you reformatted over for existing hard-drive. Installing a new drive (preferably a 240gb SSD) would have been so much better.
a. Someone with just a little computer knowledge could have likely reached-into the old drive and recovered your hidden email files.
b. Since it's drive's SMART technology failed to keep you data shuffled around and safe ... it's bad and needs to be replaced after-all anyway.
And finally, I would be surprised if Seagate Dashboard truly didn't backup Hidden Files, unless you turned if off.
speedstep
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May 9th, 2018 05:00
Change the Folder Options control panel to SHOW HIDDEN FILES, SHOW EMPTY DRIVES, SHOW PROTECTED SYSTEM FILES, SHOW HIDDEN FOLDERS.
APPLY that to all folders. If what you are looking for is still not there then it didn't get backed up and its gone forever.
Winstonspencer
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May 12th, 2018 11:00
Ron, thanks for the great and thorough instructions! Unfortunately, I have not been able to recover the files. I did recover inbox.msf but that doesn't seem to do me much good. I wish there was a way to read that file so I could at least see what emails are missing.
At least now I know to investigate more reliable backup options.
Thanks again!
Tesla1856
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May 12th, 2018 12:00
As far as finding and restoring the old email files from the backup, pretty sure Ron's answer explains it.
< Create a new user account with the OLD user name and see if they automatically have possession of those files.
Since you changed the main account name (on your new Windows install), the properly-named folder didn't exist any more ... so Seagate Dashboard could not restore the files to their original locations.